Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: dannydinosaur

Screenshot Of The Day today courtesy of dannydinosaur; not much to say about it except that it kicks all righteous ass and we wished our own screenshots looked this awesome. Thanks, DD! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

SHOOTIN’ AND LOOTIN’

Take this one on last; you’ll score at least some of these as part of completing your other Daily Challenges today. For leftovers, just head into ONI Sword Base or an Anti-Grunt Custom Firefight game (see links at top of the page for both).

Two main options here, each one a brain-ventilating headshotpalooza of good wholesome fun:

If you’re with friends or don’t mind some randoms in Co-op, hunt for a Sniperfight on Glacier to tackle all four Challenges at once; see below for details on the Survivor and Bulletproof Challenges.

If you feel like flying solo, simply load up Gruntpocalypse in Score Attack; you’ll be knocking back only three of the Challenges (sorry, only one Round in Score Attack, so you can’t become Bulletproof), but you’ll have map selection control and will notch this Challenge before the second Match ends.

Either way, keep an eye on your ammo, and make your way back to base before the clip goes dry; your pistol doesn’t count as a precision weapon, even when it scores Headshots, so you’ll be wasting kills that don’t count toward the Challenge. Also remember that while you don’t need a Headshot for a Challenge point, the medal earns you extra Firefight cR, and your ammo will last longer before the need to restock.

SURVIVOR

Five Sprees? No problem. The fact is, Bungie has created so many Sprees for Reach that you can hardly take a piss without, well, pissing on one. (And do it five times, you’ll probably get a Pissing Spree.) Weapons like the Sniper or Fistfight’s Sword and Hammer will trigger two Sprees at once, so you’ll Spree with the weapon in addition to your naked killstreak — twice as fast, in fact — to earn two notches toward the Daily Challenge.

Likewise, the extended-streak awards — Killing Frenzy, Slice ‘N’ Dice and so on — score additional notches, so you’ll register a new Spree every five kills up through 20, with double-awards at the 10 mark; that means you’ll have this Challenge in pocket from less than two dozen enemies.

The Target Locator: How to smell napalm in the morning.

Don’t like the cool special weapons of an Arcade Firefight? Okay, you eat quiche, but whatever. Just head into a standard Firefight and recover the Ordnance Weapons right away; a Spree will literally fall from the sky if you snare the Target Locator, but the rest of the Ordnance arsenal — Rockets, Sniper, Laser — will easily Spree for you as well. (Your only challenge will be the Laser: just four shots in Reach — WTF is that about, Bungie? — so simply fire into a Covie pack or burn through a Wraith for a Double-Kill to notch the added point for a Laser Spree.)

And, just one map-specific note: If you vote your way onto Beachhead or Unearthed, it’s time for some real fun. Hop into the Rocket Hog and joyride a friend around as he cuts loose with his best imitation of a KISS concert. You’ll rack up Wheelman Sprees – yes, there are those too — as well as paint the grill with a Splatter Spree or two along the way.

This Challenge used to be MUCH more difficult in the days before Firefight Arcade; getting tagged by the occasional stray Plasma would end your run (and fun) pretty damn fast. Now, however, the gift and glory of Overshields will almost always carry you through at least the first Round of a match, not to mention the ridiculously hilarious power weapons at your command.

Still, with Mythic-powered Hunters, Hammer Brutes and Heretic Snipers all populating the later Waves, it’s less likely you’ll make it through two Rounds perfectly — so you’ll be killing time at the same time you’re killing Covies as you wait for the match to end, for a Challenge bonus that’s pretty much at the bullshit end of the spectrum.

Because of that, we might even consider skipping the Challenge entirely if we didn’t find Firefight Arcade such a goddamn riot. Plus, head into a Sniperfight and you’ll be able to work all four Challenges today at the same time.

Meanwhile, though it’s slightly dated — written before the Firefight playlist upgrade — check out our Finish The Firefight permanent page for an in-depth guide to Zero Deaths; it should still give you enough good advice for racking up the Rounds — and eventually the Challenge.

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: Mr Ha99y

Screenshot Of The Day today courtesy of Mr Ha99y, with a cool-as-hell portrait pic that actually makes a Plasma Pistol look badass. Thanks, Happy! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

A HEROIC BREACH

Fire up a Gruntpocalypse and you’ll be able pocket this in two matches; you could notch it in one in Arcade, but Score Attack remains vastly superior since it gives you map selection control — no getting stuck in a Rocketfight on Glacier with a bunch of guys who aren’t chasing the Challenge. You should cross the finish line just as the second Wave of your second Round starts.

L.D. SOLACE

Complete Long Night Of Solace on Legendary without dying with Mythic, Thunderstorm, Tilt and Tough Luck on.

Tip Of The Day

OK, our standard recommendations when it comes to L.D. Challenges: You’ll probably never do this alone, and if you can in fact handle a Legendary level solo without dying, you won’t need any advice from here. This one’s practically a Weekly Challenge, and while it’s not quite last week’s Mythic difficulty — LASO/SLASO requires virtually all Skulls on — it’s pretty damn close.

So, fair warning: if you’re tackling this, it will be out of inspiration for personal accomplishment or from a compulsive psychological defect to complete all the Challenges. The 5K bonus is in the penthouse of daily cR rewards, but since you’ve already played the campaign, you won’t earn much besides the Challenge award; and you could easily score that many cRedits playing Grifball for half an hour.

Still with us, then? OK, good. Four Skulls on, so let’s take a look: Mythic doubles enemy health. Thunderstorm upgrades their rank — which, ha ha, combines anti-awesomely with Mythic. Tough Luck helps enemies evade damage, while Tilt modifies the damage tables, generally in Covenant favor against Spartan weapons. So, basically… everything the game could do to make the Covies as invulnerable as possible without involving the planet Krypton.

Since the Challenge requires zero deaths, you’ll also need to play even more defensively — stealthy when possible, and get-the-hell-out when necessary. If you think you’ve just done something that would make an awesome kick-ass clip for your File Share, you’re probably not doing this right.

ALSO NOTE: If you don’t make it through the level alive, you can’t just hit Restart; you’ll need to Save-And-Quit, then reopen the level. Otherwise, it’ll still mark your progress as Challenge Failed.

OK then. The mission’s much too long for a detailed walkthrough here, so just as we did with the LASO Challenges we’re going to turn the microphone over to the Mythic Master — the jacket-strapped lunatic who invented the SLASO runs, Tyrant himself — and his in-depth guide posted on Halo.Bungie.Org, where the HRD Challenge Report written by Associate Editor FoxmanFX appears each day.

Meanwhile, be sure to check out our Legendary Challenges permanent standing link at the top of the page for some of our standard strategies to keep in mind no matter what part of the Legendary campaign.

Whew! Quite a lot to keep in mind. To help you out, here’s a video walkthrough — done SOLO, and with the Blind Skull on too — that’s a quite long (more than 90 minutes) but well worth the watch if you get frustrated. Credit to SHADOWSTRIKE1 for the gameplay and crazy accomplishment.

GOOD LUCK!

KILLING SPREE

Yeah, like we really needed a Daily Challenge to make us hunt for Killing Sprees. We all score them pretty frequently, though not necessarily with any sense of planning or regularity. However, you still have a few options to skitch the odds in your favor:

Armor Lock, hate it though you might, becomes your best friend here, since it’ll prevent a lucky Plasma stick from resetting your Spree counter and generally save your ass in all sorts of tight spots. You know all those douchebags who you hate Armor Locking just as you’re about to score a kill? Well, now that’s you. Do you want the Challenge cRedits, or do you want to be popular? Yeah, thought so.

Armor Lock: Be The Douchbag.

As a general principle, play defensively, since you need five kills for this to register, and you probably won’t get them all in row by going batshit on the battlefield. Stick with distance headshot weapons that’ll help you score kills from range while keeping you out of danger (yes, Sniper Rifle, we’re talking to you). Ignore the close-quarter Power Weapons like Hammers, Swords and Shotguns unless you’re decent at camping; if you are, you’ll rack up a Spree in no time, and if you’re not, you’ll get a Plasma Grenade stuck to your head.

Ideally, spend your time in Objective-based Big Team Battle games and especially Invasion, since you’ll only have a timer to contend with rather than a kill-count limit, which can mathematically cut short your Spree before the game has even finished. You’ll also find more enemies to target in BTB and a greater likelihood of vehicles, which make Multikills (and thus Sprees) more typical no matter which side of the headlights you’re on.

In fact, while it’s true that Reach has nerfed most vehicles into rolling deathtraps, making it likely that you’ll eventually get blown to bits (by gunfire, Armor Lock, a flying traffic cone), they still remain useful for a few essential kills on their way to the scrapyard, especially against other vehicles. Hop in a Wraith or Revenant and play conservatively, waiting for the other team to make its rush; you can score single- or Double-Kills against guys on the ground, Doubles and Triples against other vehicles, and even boost for splatters when needed.

Other Big Team Objective games also remain great for gathering a Spree: enemies usually converge into clustered hot zones, such as with King Of The Hill or Multiflag, making it easier to spam grenades and fire into the crowd. Just don’t go into the Hill, or grab the Flag yourself: That’s a sure way to get fragged and lose your Spree. You’ll be trading off a few points in the game, but the Challenge bonus will more than make up for it.

NOTE, however: In Objective games, the counter for Sprees doesn’t carry over from Round to Round. And in all games, a betrayal will reset your counter, so don’t be tempted by that teammate with the Sniper Rifle when you’ve got one kill left to go. (Or, ever, yeah?) Also: Host migrations will reset your kill-streak to zero. It can’t be avoided, so just deal with it; and at least you can go get your own Sniper Rifle now.

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: ThatHatKid

Screenshot Of The Day today courtesy of ThatHatKid, who demonstrates why a flaming Recon helmet is the best hat of all. Thanks, Kid! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

BLASTIN’ AND RELAXIN’

Take on this one last. You’ll rack up kills working your way through today’s other Challenges; for leftovers, our standard recommendations:

By far the most convenient carnage remains at the opening of the Campaign’s ONI Sword Base mission. If you know it and don’t like the stigma of naked credit boosting, skip down. If you don’t know it, you can find a detailed rundown in the Owning On ONI permanent link on the top of this page.

But, if you don’t like the open credit farming that goes with Target Locating, simply pocket some quick kills in a Custom Game instead. Click on the Grunt Game Settings link at the top of the page for instructions on the best settings; you’ll also find a Custom Game there already set up for you.

Don’t forget you need 143 Multiplayer kills to stay on track for your Weekly Challenge, so Grifball remains a top option for scoring them quick-and-easy. Plus, you get to play Grifball. Yay!

Pish-posh.Bungie has created so many Sprees for Reach that you can hardly take a piss without, well, pissing on one. (And do it five times, you’ll probably get a Pissing Spree.) So, our standard observations for this Challenge, repeated here for your convenience:

We’re accustomed to the Killing Spree and the occasional Sword or Shotgun Spree; but now there are Grenade Stick Sprees, Assist Sprees, and even Teabag and Rage Quit Sprees. Though we’re pretty sure the medal for that last one is a Quit-Ban. Also, there’s probably not a Teabag Spree. Yet.

Some weapons will also trigger two Sprees at once; for example, the Sniper or Hammer, since you’ll Spree with the weapon in addition to your naked killstreak and earn two notches toward the Daily Challenge. Likewise, the extended-streak awards — Killing Frenzy, Slice ‘N’ Dice and so on — score additional notches as well.

The Sniper Rifle. AKA El Spree-o.

With all those options in mind, however, our personal favorite remains SniperFight: You’ll register a new Spree every five kills up through 20, with double-awards at the 10 mark; that means five points on your Challenge meter — halfway there — and the game’s hardly started. Do that again, and you’ll have Spreed all over this Challenge, long before you face the toughest opponents. (For in-depth tips and tactics on maps and Sniper positions, visit our Finish The Firefight standing permanent page.)

And, though it might seem counterintuitive, avoid Rocketfight: You’ll certainly stack Multikills quickly enough for ordinary killstreaks to come naturally, but you won’t get any special weapon streaks; and it’s pretty goddamn easy to blow yourself up, so you might find yourself ending your own streak just as often as the Covenant.

Don’t like SniperFights? Well, you’re adopted, but okay. If you head into a standard Firefight, recover one of the Ordnance Weapons right away; a Spree will literally fall from the sky if you snare the Target Locator, but the rest of the Ordnance arsenal — Rockets, Sniper, Laser — will easily Spree for you as well. (Your only challenge will be the Laser: just four shots in Reach — WTF is that about, Bungie? — so simply fire into a Covie pack or burn through a Wraith for a Double-Kill to notch the added point for a Laser Spree.)

And just one map-specific note: If you vote your way onto Beachhead or Unearthed it’s time for some real fun. Hop into the Rocket Hog and joyride a friend around as he cuts loose with his best imitation of a KISS concert. You’ll rack up Wheelman Sprees – yes, there are those too — as well as paint the grill with a Splatter Spree or two along the way.

All sorts of options here, since “Precision Weapon” includes Snipers, Needle Rifles, and the trusty standard-issue DMR. (Even though your Magnum is a headshot weapon, it’s actually classified as a Sidearm; the Focus Rifle is a precision weapon too, but they’re fewer and further between in Multiplayer.)

Both SWAT and Team Snipers seem obvious choices, though just about any gametype with a DMR start will qualify. In the playlists that don’t emphasize one-hit kills — Team Slayer, Rumble Pit, for example — keep in mind that you only need your DMR for the final shot: soften up (but don’t kill) enemies with grenades before you open fire, take down shields with an overcharged Plasma Pistol and follow melees with a headshot rather than a second melee. Remember also that you only need use a precision weapon to score a kill, not necessarily a headshot – so feel free to Supercombine with a Needle Rifle, it’ll uptick your Challenge meter just the same.

Likewise, you obviously want to avoid most instant-kill weapons, such as the Sword, Hammer, Shotgun, Rockets and Plasma Grenades, though that doesn’t mean you can’t use them to your advantage: most of these tempt other players just by their very presence, and they often concentrate more on scoring the weapon than fighting or defending. Like every other creature in the galaxy, Halo players can’t resist the lure of a shiny object.

So, even if you’ve got the chance to swap out for one yourself, consider using it instead to set a trap, waiting for players who have focused more on the power weapon than the dangers of their immediate environment (such as you). Or, even better, snag it and then drop it again in an absurdly open space, where other players are sure to see it but have little in the way of cover or defense. Unlike most other types of camping, you won’t have to wait very long for someone to show up.

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

***NEW WEEKLY CHALLENGE!***

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: MANEX MONDAY

Our friends over at the ManeX Gaming Channel on YouTube put together an incredibly interesting Video Of The Week for us this time around: game commentary for a new player who’s only been on XBox and Halo for a short while. The MXG lads look at the things he does right, the things he does wrong, and a number of habits that you probably take for granted but might actually want to rethink yourself. Check it out!

The ManeX Monday feature provides clips not of specific Challenges, but of key tactics and techniques intended to help make you a better player across ALL your Challenges. Subscribe to the Channel to get notified of updates, or follow it on Twitter here. Thanks again, guys!

Our regular Screenshot Of The Day returns tomorrow. So if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

FIRE WHEN READY

The Ancient Aztecs were a great civilization. But they didn’t play Grifball, and they died. Don’t be an Aztec! Also, you’ll get the Fire When Ready Challenge really quickly, and tank through your Oops! All Kills and Credits For Completion Challenges (see below) at the same time. Yow! (Grifballin’ courtesy of SinisterSin.)

COOK ‘EM, CLEAN ‘EM!

This Challenge is why you’ll see so many people jetpacking through Multiplayer today. If you’re a seasoned jetpacker, you won’t need any advice from here; if you’re not, it’s still going to be easy as hell.

To earn the Firebird Medal — and thus notch a kill toward the Daily Challenge — you need only be airborne from the moment you fire your final shot to when the game registers the kill; you don’t have to actually jetpack the entire gunfight.

That means you can move and fight as usual, and simply hit the jetpack as you take your killshot. (Which, in fact, is precisely what we recommend – it’s dead simple, and you’ll hardly need change your fighting style at all.) In fact, you can even hover just an inch aboveground, with barely any daylight between the floor and your boots, for your Firebird Medal to register.

It’ll also register with melees, assassinations, and weapons like Hammers and Swords; and with those weapons, you’ll even lunge pretty much the same as if your feet still touched the ground. Again, just hit your jetpack an instant before you strike and the Challenge point will register.

It won’t register, however, if you’re not actively “thrusting” when you make your kill; finish your enemy off while only in freefall and you’ll score an ordinary kill, not a Challenge point. So make sure you’re thrusting when you, ah, unload.

Unless you’re an experienced jetpacker, avoid the larger, open maps (Powerhouse, Forge World) in favor of tighter, smaller ones (Sword Base, Zealot, Countdown), even if that sounds counter-intuitive. It’s real easy to get shot out of the sky if you don’t know what you’re doing, and a close-quarters map allows you to fight almost normally, jetpacking for a moment only as you close the deal.

Rumble Pit used to be your best bet for this Challenge, since basically you could fire at anything while boosting, but Dino Blasters in Action Sack has somehow made it even easier — spawning you with a jetpack as well as a Concussion Rifle with a bottomless clip. Yeah!

Grifball remains your best bet: You can score a Double-Kill with a single hammer swing, and all other things being equal you should register the Challenge just by happenstance. Not a fan of the orange dude with the bomb? Well, OK, you’re weird, but whatever:

Head instead into Rumble Pit or Multi-Team; more enemies on smaller maps = more multikills.

Vote for gametypes on tighter maps that encourage enemies to converge into single flashpoints: King Of The Hill and Oddball, for example. Spam grenades into the hotzone, followed by DMR or Magnum headshots and the occasional coup-de-grace melee rush. Avoid the area yourself, however; no sense adding your corpse to the fiesta.

If you’re not having much luck in the Pit, get a friend and head into Multi-Team; it’s like Rumble Pit With Partners, and your enemies usually travel in pairs or threes — almost as if they’re asking to all get killed together, yes? So, coordinate with your teammates: team-shoot one enemy, then whoever doesn’t score the final shot can melee or plasma-burst another, setting up the Multi-Kill.

Big Team Battle and Invasion also offer Multi-Kill opportunities: taking out a vehicle with passenger, or a pair of enemies in the unlock zone of an Invasion phase, seem like good bets. Your main problem, however, will be not your enemies but your allies — with so many players on each side, you’ll have considerable competition among your teammates to actually score those kills.

NOTE: The Challenge tracks your progress by keeping track of medals; that means a Double-Kill that stacks into a Triple and eventually an Overkill nets you three Challenge points, not just one. Pretty good, eh?

CREDITS FOR COMPLETION

Yes, you really can earn this by doing absolutely nothing for four games; it’s hard to call it a “Challenge” when the only requirement is that your controller doesn’t turn off. (And even then.) But, hey, it’s 1400 free cRedits, and you’ll probably pocket the games simply by handling the other Dailies and Weekly Challenge. So don’t complain, eh?

Scoring 1K kills in one week sounds like an insurmountable task for which there are no shortcuts, but only the second half of that is right. The number seems conquerable only by the truly skilled or truly crazed; but, with all week to run your counter up, it becomes implausible only if you leave it to the very end.

One thousand divides not-so-neatly into 143 kills per day — an eminently manageable number, considering you’ve already completed Daily Challenges that required you to register up to 150 names in the dead-book. Notching that once per day simply turns this into a fifth Daily Challenge, with the massive payoff for all seven days at the end of the week.

Also: Though we don’t know what they are yet, several upcoming Daily Challenges — like all of today’s Challenges — will likely require you to stack Multiplayer bodies, so you’ll work this one automatically as you wrap up the Dailies during the week.

Most importantly, however, don’t talk yourself out of this simply because it’s intimidating. With the Bungie-sized bonus at the end of the week, each kill will net you an additional 15 cRedits; considering that a standard kill only awards you 4 cR, you’ll be nearly quadrupling your cRedit reward for your next thousand kills — but only if you finish. You’re a Spartan, okay? “Impossible” is a word for ODSTs.

ALL IN A WEEK’S WORK

Scoring 1K kills in one week sounds like an insurmountable task for which there are no shortcuts, but only the second half of that is right. The number seems conquerable only by the truly skilled or truly crazed; but, with all week to run your counter up, it becomes implausible only if you leave it to the very end.

One thousand divides not-so-neatly into 143 kills per day — an eminently manageable number, considering you’ve already completed Daily Challenges that required you to register up to 150 names in the dead-book. Notching that once per day simply turns this into a fifth Daily Challenge, with the massive payoff for all seven days at the end of the week.

Also: Though we don’t know what they are yet, several upcoming Daily Challenges — like all of today’s Challenges — will likely require you to stack Multiplayer bodies, so you’ll work this one automatically as you wrap up the Dailies during the week.

Most importantly, however, don’t talk yourself out of this simply because it’s intimidating. With the Bungie-sized bonus at the end of the week, each kill will net you an additional 15 cRedits; considering that a standard kill only awards you 4 cR, you’ll be nearly quadrupling your cRedit reward for your next thousand kills — but only if you finish. You’re a Spartan, okay? “Impossible” is a word for ODSTs.

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

***WEEKLY CHALLENGE LAST DAY!***

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: Pahute Mesa

Screenshot Of The Day today courtesy of Pahute Mesa, who reminds us there’s nothing quite like a good explosion of Zombie blood on a fine Sunday morning. Thanks, Pahute! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

LIGHT FARE

You’ll score most of these automatically as part of completing your other Daily Challenges today. For leftovers, just head into ONI Sword Base or an anti-Grunt Custom Firefight game (see links at top of the page for both).

THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT. . .

Load up any Campaign level on Normal that offers a precision weapon plus lots o’ Grunts, and get to work.

ONI Sword Base features a DMR start and opens in the middle of a firefight, plus there’s a Sniper Rifle at the end of the base-side Terrace for pwning Elites once you’ve cleared the Jackals and Grunts. Winter Contingency at Rally Point Bravo literally drops you into a Fodder-O-Rama of a firefight; and though you enter with an Assault Rifle, a DMR conveniently awaits your weapon swap on the asphalt leading to the rear bunker, with more ammo for it just inside.

(Nightfall, of course, spawns you with a Sniper, but with 50 kills in front of you, it’s not going to wrap things as quickly; and do you really want Jun telling you to “do it quiet” again? Anyway, take yer pick.)

Concentrate on headshots against Grunts and Jackals, since those award extra Medal cR, and don’t waste DMR ammo on the Elites — you’ll run out of enemies before hitting the half-century mark and need to revert the Checkpoint anyway; so, unless you feel like sniping, you might as well reset as soon as you’ve cleaned slate on the lesser Covies.

If you run low on ammo, simply swipe Needle Rifles from the fallen Jackals; those register precision kills like a DMR, but heading into a bunker for a DMR reload can trigger a Checkpoint, meaning you’d have to settle for a full level restart.

KILLAGRUNTJARO!

Despite its name, Killagruntjaro doesn’t actually require you to Jaro anything, though we will be going with Gruntpocalypse in Score Attack to wrap this in one Round rather than three.

It shouldn’t be any problem to Magnum or DMR your way to seven Multikills, since the Grunts go down with one shot, travel in packs, and maneuver with the agility of highway roadside accident. So, if you can’t manage seven out of a single match, you’re just not trying.

We prefer Rumble Pit on smaller, tighter maps: Wherever you can sneak up on someone, catch them by surprise as they come ’round a corner or make a straight Sprint toward their unsuspecting spines will offer all sorts of banzai backstab openings.

Although you can Sprint for a cheetah-like takedown, you can stalk just as easily with Active Camo if you don’t mind alerting your prey to nearby danger, since Camo-crouched near a doorway or corner for a lightning strike will make the Discovery Channel highlight reel as well.

Though it often goes hand-in-glove with Rumble Pit recommendations, avoid Multi-Team for this one: There’s just too much damn gunfire everywhere, and you could easily find yourself Yoinked – or worse, Showstopped – as the Assassination animation plays.

Finally, an excellent point from reader MAL, who in real life makes his living as a professional assassin:

Choosing a ‘Pro’ game in Matchmaking Rumble Pit, like Crazy King Pro or Slayer Pro, makes this extremely simple. The lack of radar will make it easy to sneak up on opponents and get multiple assassinations.

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: PaperTowels

Holy crap, that’s BADASS! Screenshot Of The Day today courtesy of PaperTowels9876, who will wipe the counter with your dead, twitching body. Goddamn right, PT! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

COVENANT-CIDE

Load up any power-weapon Firefight Arcade game and you should be able to blast your way to this Challenge in a single match. Even if you fall short of the mark, though, it’s a simple matter to just fire up another, or wrap things up in Score Attack.

(We’d recommend against Score Attack for starters, however; though Gruntpocalypse seems like an obvious choice, since it offers exactly the right number of Grunts — 120 — they have a tendancy to blow up themselves, or each other, or both, meaning you’d fall short and need a second match anyway.)

PASS THE ROCK

NOTE: Remember that maddening glitch from the first time this Challenge appeared, when it required you to score Assists before your first death, and then the counter locked until your next game? Yeah, well, that’s been fixed. Rack up your Assists and get killed with reckless abandon, they’ll all still register toward the Challenge.

So, our standard spiel: Working toward Assists can always be a hassle, since your natural instincts and gaming skills focus on putting down your enemies, not passing the kill off to another player. Nobody makes the highlight reel by almost scoring 20 times.

Despite that, Bungie intends to pay you today to help out other players who haven’t really earned it when they cash in on your setup. Click on the Assist-O-Rama permanent link at the top of the page for our in-depth guide to Not Closing The Deal.

PARTICIPATION COUNTS

Yes, you really can earn this by doing absolutely nothing for four games; it’s hard to call it a “Challenge” when the only requirement is that your controller doesn’t turn off. (And even then.) But, hey, it’s 1200 free cRedits — so don’t complain, eh?